LaTeX \graphicspath recursive search

Question

I've read that LaTeX image directories can be searched recursively with the \graphicspath command by including a double slash at the end - i.e. \graphicspath{{../my_images//}}.

However, the recursive part of this doesn't seem to be happening. I've tried several different iterations, including / vs \, absolute paths, and pdftex vs latex. Any ideas what is wrong? Google has turned up nothing but confirmation that this should work. I'm on Windows 7 using Miktex 2.9. I've not had the opportunity to try this on another platform.

Where did you read that? Recursive path search through \graphicspath is impossible. — AlexG, Aug 11 '11 at 07:12
@Alexander: While it is impossible to list directory contents in pure TeX, it should be possible with \write18 or LuaTeX. — Andrey Vihrov, Aug 11 '11 at 07:14
Actually, this (recursive search) seems to be a good idea for a LaTeX package. Is there one yet? — Andrey Vihrov, Aug 11 '11 at 07:18
I've not seen it work but is stated in the LaTeX wiki section on \includegraphics: "The last command searches the files recursively because of the double slash "//"." — mas, Aug 11 '11 at 09:57
It is also stated in an accepted answer on this site in relation to MikTeX. — mas, Aug 11 '11 at 10:27
@mas: Someone should correct this wiki entry because it is wrong. — AlexG, Aug 11 '11 at 10:36
Well, thanks for the input. It sounds like the answer is, "that shouldn't work, but there are instances of it working... answer not known"? In my case, it is easy enough just to list all the directories, but I thought this would be useful and slick. — Nate, Aug 12 '11 at 16:48

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

To summarise the responses in the comments:

(a) For many platforms, ending the specified path to \graphicspath with a double-slash does not invoke recursion through directories below that.

(b) For some users, ending the path to \graphicspath with a double slash does invoke recursion. All the cases I have seen documented and where the platform was mentioned were MikTeX users, e.g. see an accepted answer on this site. At the time of writing the LaTeX Wiki also mentions this behaviour.

As the OP put in a comment, it "shouldn't work, but there are instances of it working". There was general agreement that it would be a handy feature, especially given that any overhead of time and memory would likely be of little consequence to most users.

LaTeX \graphicspath recursive search

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